The link between school and suicide

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I worked on a Crisis Hotline for a number of years and the only pattern I saw was a big increase in suicides in March. However, I did not speak with many young people as I suspect they were less inclined to call someone.

I have observed three types of suicide.

1. Event. There can be a traumatic event that triggers the contemplation of suicide.
2. Disconnect. A person may feel that most of what he thought his life was has changed.
3. Inevitable. A person may have depression or mental illness that makes this seem the only option.

The type of suicide described by number two is more common for young people. You can see it often with military people. When people cannot easily relate to others, ask for help, or feel that there is no place in which they fit, they can be overcome with a feeling of hopelessness.

Young people also have an additional difficulty. There is a human characteristic that affects how we perceive time. You can tell a three year old, "Yes, you can have a cookie tomorrow". The child is perplexed because he hears the word "yes" and "cookie" but he has no cookie. The word "tomorrow" is too abstract for him. His world of reality is about five minutes in the future and the past. When he is in high school, his world of reality expands to about two weeks in the future and in the past. When he is eighty years old, things that happen 40 years earlier may seem quite real to him.

Young people have a more intense focus on the immediate than many older people appreciate. This intensity can amplify a feeling of disconnection and hopeless.

Young people have an additional difficulty in that they have limited personal experience of other social environments. If a family melts down or a school situation goes south, there can seem no possibility of a solution or a better life because there is no personal experience that can bolster one through difficulty.

The doctor, pastor, therapist, counselor, or administrator may seem eager to help, but only insofar as to package a person so that they can be processed by the organization that pays their salary. What usually helps someone through a dark period is a real friend.

An additional problem for young people is that they are often just discovering the difference between a real friend and the superficial activity that frequently passes for friendship. A disconnect can occur when they have no real friend and have to deal with feelings of overwhelming hopelessness all by themselves.